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Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

“The government is observing at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently